Page 10 - Curiosity_Feb_2021

Amritanshu Vajpayee
virtue of the phenomenon of preces- sion, the zodiacal constellations have shifted from their then original position considerably.
Earth’s axis is not fixed but it wob- bles like a top and traces the figure like
a cone in the course of move- ment. This wobbly motion of Earth is called precession. It causes the equatorial wobble, and vernal equinox and the tropical zodiac belt to shift backwards through a small angle though noticeable in large epochs only and also causes the pole stars to change. One com- plete revolution on course of precession motion is complet- ed in 25772 years (though the rate of precession does in itself varies). So, it can be concluded by dividing time period by 360° that the apparent position of
the Sun relative to the backdrop of the stars at some seasonally fixed time slowly regresses a full 360° through all twelve constel- lations of the zodiac belt, at the rate of about 50.3 seconds of arc per year. In simple language, Earth takes 71.6 years for 1 degree precession movement.
The immediate fallout of this precession movement has been that the winter solstice no more occurs on the day of transmigra- tion of the Sun actually into the Capricorn (Makara) sign and instead it occurs on December 21/22 when sun lies in Sagittari- us (Dhanu) instead of Capricorn thereby making Uttarayana
The Astronomical Mystery of Makara Sankranti
10
February 2021
ndia is the land of festivi- ties where each day has a festival to celebrate! Makara Sankranti is however slightly
different from the others. While all the other Indian festivals are celebrated according to the lunar calendar governed by tithis, marking
their days of celebration on the solar calendar vary year-to- year. But Makara Sankranti is perhaps the only Indian festival celebrated on a fixed day on
our solar calendar - January 14 (sometimes January 15). Before diving deep, let us see what Ma- kara Sankranti really means. Here Makara is the name of a Zodiac Capricornus. Sankranti is the Sanskrit word for the entry of our Sun in to a zodiac phase migrating from the previ- ous zodiac one. So, the trans- migration of Sun into Makara (Capricornus) is celebrated as Makara Sankranti, which usu- ally falls on January 14th on our calendar. We have 12 zodiacs and therefore there will be 12 corresponding transmigrations of Sun resulting in 12 Sankran- tis in a year. The constellations of the zodiac lie along the ecliptic: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scor- pios, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces.
But curious case of Makara Sankranti is further magnified by the fact that it is also referred to as Uttarayana (the day of phase reversal from southward
movement to northward movement for the Sun). In ancient India, when schol- ars observed the celestial events they made a reference of it in the calendar as an auspicious day. But in due course of time, due to movement of the Earth by